There are two different goals in learning I want to talk to you about: academic and intellectual. Academic goals focus on the mastery of facts, memorizing the alphabet, practicing in drills, worksheets, and other kid exercises to prepare children for the next levels of numeracy and learning. 

Intellectual goals emphasize reasoning, hypothesizing, posing questions, predicting answers to questions, developing and analyzing ideas the try to understand something. 

We need BOTH goals when it comes to learning. However, much of the early curriculum in non-accredited programs focus on the academic goals before the intellectual. Academic learning will happen without a doubt in Kindergarten. The research argues that preschoolers and toddlers actually will do better academically if they have executive functioning skills, which include self-regulation, organizing and planning, and flexible thinking. 

True education cannot be forced upon a child-- a child has to want to learn. It is our job as parents and teachers to discover their desire to learn and encourage it. But how? 

Let the child lead the play. 

Learning is what happens as they problem-solve.

Think, plan, execute, evaluate and reflect.

The best kind of learning usually happens when we have no idea what will happen next in the play.

We provide the opportunities, and they create the learning.

Play is the best method for early education, and sadly it’s vanishing from their lives.

Albert Einstein made an observation, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education”

Unstructured child-led play has enormous benefits for young children... which are not going to show up on a benchmark exam. If children are going to learn to be creative thinking and innovative problem solvers, then they have to use their own mental processes to explore the world. 

Textbooks do not tell us how to navigate change and hardships, they do not tell us how to solve problems. Children need to be able to play, explore, question, and solve problems without adult assistance. 

Our job is to create engaging and interesting opportunities for them to explore 

PLAY. Be creative, use your resources. 

Being intentional with our toys opens up more opportunities for learning through play, deep intellectual experiences, problem-solving, and a play world full of imagination. 

Did you know?

Two-Year-Old Attention Span: 4-6 minutes

Three-Year-Old Attention Span: 6-9 minutes

Four-Year-Old Attention Span: 8-12 minutes

Five-Year-Old Attention Span: 10-15 minutes

Do you see why independent play might not last very long? Their minds are busy... the more they can DO and CREATE with their toys, the longer they will last playing with them. This is why I preach about open-ended toys.

What is an open-ended toy?

Open-ended toys are toys that can be used in more than one way. Toys like building blocks, dramatic play props, train tracks, art supplies… all of these give children the opportunity to manipulate them differently each time. Whereas a Leapfrog kids laptop or a toy robot really does the same thing each time and children will lose interest faster.

Open-ended toys encourage the most learning objectives, independence, and creativity.

Lovevery Review

We are huge fans of open-ended play in our house. There are so many benefits for the parents and the kids. You can get open-ended toys from so many sources. We have everything from hand-me-downs, goodwill, garage sales to the highest quality of toys that we will get to pass down to grandkids one day. And Lovevery falls into this category. These toys are educational, sustainable and ethically made. They are the toys you proudly display on your open-ended shelves. We have several toys from Lovevery and ALL THREE of my kids play with all of them… even though they are made for specific ages, they can hold the interest of younger and older children.

Shop Lovevery here.

- I received this item for review from Lovevery but all opinions expressed are my own.  Please see our full Disclosure Policy for more information - 

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